After the last spring sports season was cut short due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the baseball season got underway at the end of last week when tryouts opened at Aubrey “Mutt” Stuessel Stadium to create the Sealy Tigers’ 2021 roster.

Sealy head coach Dane Bennett said he and the coaching staff split athletes into two groups – one with underclassmen and newcomers to the program and another with juniors and seniors – to allow both clusters to get attention from the coaches.

“The early group with the freshmen, sophomores and newcomers, we had a true tryout and you could tell the ones that had picked up a bat or thrown a baseball in the last five months and the ones that hadn’t,” Bennett said at the end of Friday’s first workout. “With this older group though, we pretty much hit it on the run. There was a little bit of rust but we’re not starting from scratch; day one for us isn’t a true ‘Day one’ for a lot of teams.”

With a strong contingency of returners and impact players from Tiger teams in previous years, Bennett was pleased to see the leadership group stepping up on the first official day back on the field.

“We have returners, we have leaders, Sealy is a baseball town and our kids love the game. They’ve been putting in a lot of work,” Bennett said. “There have been a lot of kids who have been here every single day for two to three hours just getting ready for this day so I believe we’re a couple of weeks ahead of where we’re starting.”

The Tigers had two and a half weeks from last Friday to prepare for their first scrimmage on the road at Cypress Christian Academy on Feb. 9 and Bennett said the coaching staff would use that time, as well as the four scrimmages, to lock in the roster.

“We have a lot of returners but we also have a handful of underclassmen that I think have the chance to be pretty special over the next couple of years and they’re competing for spots,” the skipper said. “I think over the next few weeks – and even into the scrimmages – we’re really going to test these guys and see who is going to win a spot.”

Bennett thought this group of now-seniors learned their lesson from last year’s graduating members who played only a handful of games before the season was canceled altogether.

“To see how the seniors missed out on a whole half of their season and playoffs – you play this game to give yourself a chance to win a state championship and build memories with your brothers, build those friendships,” Bennett said. “For them to miss out on all of that was really hard to see so coming into this year, obviously we’re going to do whatever we have to; we’ll wear the masks and do whatever we have to get this season in.”

Sealy’s 2021 season is scheduled to include four scrimmages, three tournaments and five non-district contests against a singular opponent before the 10 games within District 24-4A that will determine playoff positioning.

The first round of district play is scheduled to start at home against El Campo on March 23 and is set to finish, similarly at home, against Navasota on April 9. The second round is scheduled to start on the road in El Campo on April 13 and is set to conclude on April 27 in Navasota.

Either way, Bennett was just glad to be back around the game he loves so much.

“When we finished up the field for the most part and I took the pictures, there’s nothing better than a pretty baseball field. It’s one of the joys of the world to see a beautiful baseball field and we’re blessed out here to have a really nice field for a 4A high school,” the head coach said. “When it comes to sports there are a lot of great things and I love a lot of sports but when it comes to baseball, for me, it’s a different passion. Being out under these lights, all I can think about is how ready I am to get to the first game.”